Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 16 THE FRANKS. [650- duration. Another people made their appearance, more powerful, more daring, more shrewd than those who had preceded them. These were the Franks. They came from afar, across the Low Countries, and with fire and sword quickly made themselves masters of all Gaul. They established themselves in the conquered cities, and the country, from them, was called France. When they encountered the power of the Allemanni on the Rhine, a long struggle took place between the two- people. At last the Allemanni were completely and irretrievably vanquished in a terrible conflict, and those who dwelt along the Rhine, in Suabia and in Helvetia, fell under the dominion of the victors. A short time afterwards, the Burgundians also perished by discord and the vices of their princes. The Goths took possession of the Burgundian Alps and of Geneva; the Franks, of the rest of the Burgundian territory. But the latter, only, kept what they won; not so the Goths. When their dominion came to an end in Italy, their power over the Alpine region perished also. The Frank king, Dietbert [Dagobert?], did not hesitate. He marched with his troops, and conquered Rhetia and the rest of the country. Thus, at last, after more than five centuries of vicissitudes and changes, all Helvetia was again united under the sceptre of a single sovereign, as it had been under the Romans. CHAPTER VI. DOMINION AND BULE OF THS FRANKS. [A. D. 650 to 900.] The new masters divided the country into two parts, because they had acquired possession of them at different times, and because the inhabitants themselves spoke different languages. The country occupied by the Allemanni, and where German was spoken, that is, Rhetia and Thuri- -900.] FEtTDAL ORGANIZATION. 17 gau, was united to Suabia. The ot...